Law & Order SVU — s1e18 Chat Room
[Please be aware that it is recommended that you watch the episode before reading further as it discusses the plot in detail.]
It’s quite a trip to watch this episode in 2024 because not only is it a season 1 episode, it is also an episode that focuses on the then newly popular internet. Both chatrooms and the show itself have evolved into something quite different. The show, especially, would not make the same creative decisions today.
The cold open is a bit different too, in that we see the victim calling her mom (on a payphone) about her assault. This is 16-year-old Karen played by Paz de la Huerta (Enter the Void, Boardwalk Empire). Our detectives meet her in the hospital post-exam. Weird that they did not talk to any hospital staff about the victim. Since this was before Ice T joined the show, Stabler had to be the one to ask the Fin question after Karen said she met her attacker in a chat room.
Things also feel a bit unusual as our detectives seem skeptical of her story. This is something we haven’t seen the show done since: both our detectives don’t seem to believe her story fairly early on. If it was a later season, we would have one doubting the story and one would believe the victim. They did that a lot during the Amaro/Rollins era. There is an extra unfortunate parallel to real life as Paz de la Huerta had accused Harvey Weinstein of two rapes in 2017 before the Me Too movement but charges were not filed even after Weinstein was convicted of other crimes.
On the fictional show, turns out Karen was lying about the Yachtsman assault so that her mom doesn’t find out about her having sex with her boyfriend. Her 21-year-old boyfriend. This leads to probably one of the wildest scenes of this show where Stabler, not known to be the calmest and restraint policeman, gently advising the 21-year-old boyfriend to wait a couple years and “give it a rest” for a while. Yes, plot-wise there is a reason for letting this guy go free but it’s hard to imagine the Stabler we know would do something like that. Then again, it is season one.
The reason turns out to be that the boyfriend is actually storing and making money off photos of underage girls on his server. But before they can lock him up, he can offer up the pedophile clients. They did this later on with much better result in the horrifying and emotional Rosie Perez episode.
Some technology in the episode may be dated but I wonder if this “netcash” and “untraceable cyberbucks” would make a comeback in a shitty future.
Another wild scene because it’s season one has Cragen pulling the Yachtsman’s attorney aside doing the “do you have children?” routine as if saying we may not have much evidence but you shouldn’t defend this likely pedophile at all even though it’s your job as a defense attorney.
Another wild but intentionally funny scene is when they find the seller of panties on eBay.
In the later seasons we usually get the detectives in the squad room giving their opinions on the subject of the week. We get some price one liners from Munch this week about the internet but we also get a few scenes of the Stablers household (it says so on the computer screensaver) and their perspective on cyberspace. Unlike most fans I like seeing Kathy and Catherine on the show in later seasons but these home scenes are a bit too much in this episode. They don’t really say much other than “the internet has horrible things and children exist at the same time/it really sucks to be parents while the internet exists.” I don't have children and have never had to use parental control but I hope they can’t be bypassed just by hitting two keys simultaneously.
Instead, I wish they had used the time for a more satisfying ending. It’s somewhat haunting with a pedophile unremorsefully claiming why children prefer him to police or parents or government agencies. Combining this final scene with the following statement, it’s like a PSA without a message or solution. I don’t think even in the late 90s/early 00s, people would be surprised to find out that pervs gather on the internet.
Despite some flaws, this episode kind of distills the premise of SVU: it has to deal with difficult and horrifying crimes and often have to do so in an entertaining way. They did balance it for quite a while, then it turned more to the serious/horrifying side. The more recent ones seem to tip further into the characters’ personal life. It’s bound to happen at some point for a show that’s been on for 25 years.
It’s still a worthwhile episode if you take the period into consideration. Paz de la Huerta is great as the sheltered nervous teen with something to hide. Her mom is played by Siobhan Fallon, who you may recognize as Elaine’s old roommate on Seinfeld, SNL, and the Negotiator. The future Google boss is played by Billion’s Ben Shenkman. Frequent Law & Order guest star Jenna Stern plays the DA.
April 14th, 2000
Rules of Engagement was no. 1 at the box office second weekend in a row, fending off 28 Days and Keeping the Faith. More interesting is the opening of the no. 7 film American Psycho, which I think is more talked about than all the other movies above it. People were insane for Nsync and that Santana collab while Destiny’s Child still had four members. It was the beginning of the end for network tv show as Who Wants to be a Millionaire occupied three spots in the top 10 tv ratings.
Eight months after this episode aired, the Children’s Internet Protection Act was signed into law. It was mostly to prevent obscene material and pornography being exposed to children. This was the third attempt at restricting indecent internet content after two previous Acts were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court for violating the First Amendment. A 2006 Deleting Online Predators Act did not advance beyond the Senate. It was an attempt to block chat rooms and social media sites popular at the time in schools and libraries. Interestingly, a survey in 2004 suggested that children being solicited online by predators have decreased from 1999 but harassment and bullying by peers increased.
